2023-2024

Hannah Schoenbaum

Hannah Schoenbaum covers government and politics for The Associated Press, with a focus on the North Carolina General Assembly and the state’s congressional races. Schoenbaum previously covered Congress for The Hill, a political news site, and the Albany Times Union while a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and was a regular contributor at USA Today. Her in-depth reporting on inequities against Black farmers and urban Native Americans has been cited on the congressional record and helped inform legislation. She has covered election security for the NBC News Vote Watch team, investigated wrongful evictions for The Boston Globe and questioned presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg about corporate influence in politics, live on CNN. An alumna of Boston University, she got her start in state government reporting as the Massachusetts Statehouse reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. She is a proud member of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists.

Jeniece Roman

Jeniece Roman covers Indigenous communities in Connecticut and Long Island for WSHU, an NPR member radio station based in Fairfield, Connecticut. Prior to joining WSHU, Roman reported for Connecticut’s New Britain Herald and the Record-Journal in Meriden; she has won several awards from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists. Roman earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern Connecticut State University, majoring in journalism with a concentration in political science, and she was the student chapter president of the Society of Professional Journalists and the editor-in-chief of The Southern News, the student-run paper. Roman enjoys reading books, photography and true crime podcasts.

Laura Kebede-Twumasi

Laura Kebede-Twumasi is launching the Civil Wrongs project at the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Previously, she wrote and hosted a WKNO public television special on unresolved civil rights crimes in the Memphis area, and spearheaded a partnership between The New Tri-State Defender and WKNO public radio on a forgotten civil rights journalism hero, L. Alex Wilson. Laura Kebede-Twumasi is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has a decade of reporting experience, including five years writing about education inequities in Memphis for Chalkbeat.

Michaela Towfighi

Michaela Towfighi reports on struggling middle-class and working-class residents for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. Prior to joining the Monitor full time, she was a summer intern there. A 2022 graduate of Duke University with a degree in public policy and journalism and media studies, she covered education, COVID-19 and the 2020 election and helped edit stories about the Durham County Courthouse for The 9th Street, a Duke newsletter, and North Carolina’s Indy Week. Her story about a family grappling with a delayed trial for a fatal car accident in Concord, New Hampshire won top honors in Duke’s Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism. Towfighi is an American expat who calls London home, despite not having picked up a British accent just yet.

Sarah Michels

Sarah Michels is a general assignment reporter for the Bowling Green Daily News, a central Kentucky newspaper covering Bowling Green and outlying counties. Michels interned at the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Cincinnati Enquirer, where she found her niche as a storytelling reporter. Michels holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science, with minors in Spanish and business from the University of Kentucky, where she worked at the Kentucky Kernel, the student paper, as the opinions editor, assistant news editor, breaking news reporter and features reporter. She ran track and cross country in college, and you can still find her competing in road races and exploring the nearest trails.

Yujie Zhou

Yujie Zhou covers Bay Area tech companies and gig workers for Mission Local, an investigative news outlet based in San Francisco. Before falling in love with the city, she covered New York City’s Chinese community and studied politics in the midst of Hong Kong’s street clashes. Zhou holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s degree in public policy and politics from City University of Hong Kong. She’s proud to be a bilingual journalist.

Bennet Goldstein

Bennet Goldstein reports on water and agriculture as Wisconsin Watch’s Report for America representative on the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk—a collaborative reporting network across the Basin. Before this, Goldstein was on the breaking news team at the Omaha World Herald in Nebraska. He has spent most of his career at daily papers in Iowa, including the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Goldstein’s work has garnered awards, including the Associated Press Media Editors award for an explanatory feature about a police shooting in rural Wisconsin, and an Iowa Newspaper Association award for a series that detailed the impacts of the loss of social safety net programs on Dubuque’s Marshallese community. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cris Villalonga-Vivoni

Cris Villalonga-Vivoni, better known as CV, is the health equity beat reporter for the Record-Journal, based in Meriden, Connecticut. Previously, as a Field Foundation fellow, Villalonga-Vivoni reported for the Windy City Times, a Chicago-based LGBTQ+ newspaper. Hailing from Puerto Rico, Villalonga-Vivoni holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s in English from Boston College. When not on the beat, Villalonga-Vivoni can be found caring for horses at a local barn or on the couch cuddling a cat.

Harika Maddala

Harika Maddala is a photojournalist based in Stockton, California, covering the news around San Joaquin County for the Bay City News Foundation and its nonprofit news site Local News Matters. Maddala previously documented the homelessness crisis as a research fellow at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity, which was co-founded by Stanford University and the University of Southern California. Born and raised in India, Maddala is fluent in Telugu, Hindi and Kannada, and moved to the U.S. at age 19. As a staff photographer and photo editor for San Francisco State’s newspaper, the Golden Gate Xpress, Maddala covered police violence, prison transfers and environmental racism, and placed in the top 10 in the Hearst Journalism Awards 2021. Maddala’s work has been displayed at galleries.

Jennifer Brookland

Jennifer Brookland reports on child welfare in Michigan for the Detroit Free Press. Prior to joining the Free Press, she reported on military and veterans’ affairs and produced a daily talk show highlighting local and statewide issues for North Carolina Public Radio. She has also spent seven years freelancing. Brookland began her career as a special agent with the U.S. Air Force, where she led felony-level criminal investigations and was deployed to the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a master’s from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Brookland says that she vaguely remembers enjoying traveling, reading and theater but adds that she spends most of her time now trying to convince her three kids that she’s in charge.